System and method for operating a material drop ejecting three-dimensional (3D) object printer to prevent quantization error in perimeters of a three-dimensional printed object

A metal drop ejecting apparatus comprising:

• a melter configured to receive and melt a bulk metal;
• an ejection head having a nozzle that is fluidly connected to the melter to receive melted bulk metal from the melter;
• a platform positioned opposite the ejection head;
• at least one actuator operatively connected to at least one of the platform and the at least one ejection head, the at least one actuator being configured to move the at least one of the platform and the at least one ejection head relative to one another;
• and
• a controller operatively connected to the melter, the at least one ejection head, and the at least one actuator, the controller being configured to:
• identify a perimeter to be formed in a first object layer by execution of machine ready instructions generated from an object layer data model;
• identify a number of material drops to eject to form the perimeter in the first object layer and a first quantization error for the first object layer, the identified number of material drops to form the perimeter in the first object layer being a first integer;
• identify a location for a first material drop to be ejected to form the perimeter in the first object layer;
• modify the machine ready instructions generated from the object layer data model that are to be executed to form the perimeter in the first object layer using the identified number of material drops and the identified location for the first material drop;
• execute the modified machine-ready instructions to operate the material drop ejecting 3D object printer to form the perimeter in the first object layer to be formed by the material drop ejecting 3D object printer;
• identify a perimeter to be formed in a second object layer of an object layer data model that corresponds to the perimeter to be formed in the first object layer;
• distribute the quantization error of the first object layer to a second object layer in the object layer data model;
• identify a number of material drops to eject to form the perimeter in the second object layer and a second quantization error for the second object layer, the identified number of material drops to form the perimeter in the second object layer being a second integer number that is different than the first integer number;
• identify a location for a first material drop to be ejected to form the perimeter in the second object layer;
• modify the machine ready instructions generated from the object data model that are to be executed to form the perimeter in the second object layer using the identified number of material drops and the identified location for forming the perimeter in the second object layer;
• and
• execute the modified machine-ready instructions that are to be executed to form the perimeter in the second object layer to operate the material drop ejecting 3D object printer to form the perimeter in the second object layer.